Synapsis

New article up on SYNAPSIS! Ashley Moyse, Director of the Columbia Character Cooperatives, writes about the Cooperatives' mission, Jonathan Swift's vision of the bee, and imagining a future for medicine of mutuality, discernment, and care. Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/06/17/swe…

Next up, Sarah Roth discusses recovery from a double mastectomy, and the crucial supportive role of queer media (like FX's Dying for Sex and Miranda July's novel All Fours) and communities in their processes of self-fashioning. Read it here! medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/05/09/thr…

Two new articles up on SYNAPSIS this Friday! First, Jing Sun examines the year 1923, a critical moment in Japan-U.S. medical exchange in the years before WW2. How did American physicians regard their Japanese counterparts, and vice versa? Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/05/07/whe…

New articles for the upcoming week from SYNAPSIS! Returning contributor Merve Şen writes on Ben Marcus's 2012 novel The Flame Alphabet, and examines practices of amateur medicine and DIY-self care in the midst of an unsettling pandemic. Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/05/04/hom…

Next, Emily Waples reviews the FX series "Dying for Sex," starring Michelle Williams. How does the show reflect current research on sex, illness, and dying, as well at the earlier podcast it was adapted from? Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/04/30/sex…

A busy week at SYNAPSIS! Two new articles up today: first from Kathryn West, a review of the recent edited volume How to be Disabled in a Pandemic (2025). West examines the included essays with a particular focus on emphasizing the disabled voices. medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/04/29/boo…

Dr. Peter A. DePergola II writes on the ethics of care, honesty, and the refusal to "tell the polite lie." What can Tolstoy teach us about shared vulnerability, of confronting death, and of plain, authentic speech? Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/04/28/ref…

NEW on SYNAPSIS this week: David Lombard writes on the complexities of hope in memoirs of mental illness and recovery. Is hope a universally positive emotion? How can we compare it to hope in other contexts, such as climate anxiety? Read it HERE: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/04/29/wri…

And up next is Ajitpaul Mangat's review of Jina B. Kim's upcoming monograph Care at the End of the World: Dreaming of Infrastructure in Crip-of-Color Writing, out soon from Duke University Press. Check it out below: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/03/31/inf…

Two new articles up on SYNAPSIS! First, we are happy to host Pauline Picot's review of Matthew Nienow's new verse collection, "If Nothing," an unsparing memoir of addiction and recovery. medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/03/02/if-…

Next, Heather Glenny examines "The Substance" through the lens of Lauren Berlant’s concept of “lateral agency,” imagining a type of noncompliance that doesn’t rely on active agency. How can we read the film differently in this light? Read it here! medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/03/02/the…

Two new articles on SYNAPSIS this week! First, Grace Kao explores the medical importance of a sense of purpose, especially for those with chronic illness. As she asks, "how does one reconstruct meaning when former touchstones have faded away?" medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/03/01/rei…

Ghosts and Angels: The Supernatural in Illness Narratives medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/25/gho… via @synapsisjournal #histmed

And Sabina Dosani writes on two illness narratives - Tony Kushner’s 1991 play Angels in America and Hilary Mantel’s 2003 memoir Giving Up the Ghost - through the lens of the supernatural, and offers a reparative reading which takes seriously the spectral. medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/25/gho…

New this week on SYNAPSIS: Trishala Dutta writes on fungi as a mode of thinking about disability, ethics, and collective futures in the midst of capitalist ruination. Check out this fascinating piece here ⬇️ medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/24/fun…

New on Synapsis! How can we speak of the singular traumas we collectively experienced during the COVID pandemic? Ingrid Berg reviews Days of Grace and Silence (2024), a remarkable new work of memoir and poetry by Ann E. Wallace. Read it here ⬇️⬇️ medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/16/cap…

Up on SYNAPSIS now! Do you find the best cure for writer's block a quick walk around the block? Matt Somerville writes on the history of walking as creative practice, and the new research behind it. Read it here! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/21/tak…

NEW on SYNAPSIS: Nicholas Derda reviews Paul M. Renfro’s new book, The Life and Times of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America (2024), and asks: how do we re-examine this history without reifying a whitewashed narrative about HIV/AIDS? Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/13/inn…

New on Synapsis! Danielle Wilfand writes on the experience of making sense of undiagnosed illness as both patient and physician, and the power of narrative medicine in allowing us to live with chaos. Read it here! medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/08/the…

Next, Steven Rhue writes on the history of the polio vaccine, which has almost eliminated this ancient disease. In light of an ongoing petition to revoke its FDA authorization, he asks whether we have forgotten polio's catastrophic effects. Read it here: medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/07/pol…

Two new articles out at Synapsis this week! First, check out Adrianna Grace Michell's new piece, "It was there in front of me: Trauma Art in Don DeLillo’s 'Zero K'," which asks how representations of trauma embody present challenges of disability. medicalhealthhumanities.com/2025/02/06/it-…